The striped queen snake

The striped queen snake

The Striped Queen is a snake of the group of the inoffensive racers, which inhabit tropical rain and cloud forest in our country. They are usually small, diurnal snakes, wandering near creeks, hunting for small frogs, which conform their favorite food.

This snake belongs to the family of the Colubridae, which embraces most of the non-poisonous species, due to the lack of poison or fangs. This is a complex group of species whose classification has been problematic, since the characters used for its diagnosis are highly variable.

The Striped Queen possesses a wide black stripe along the back, skirted by two parallel thin stripes on a golden background. On the neck, the stripes are rather mottled. The forehead is green olive. A close relative, the Queen of the Rancho Grande cloud forest, is black, with a finely spotted yellow reticule that covers all the dorsum.

Among the snakes, which I have manipulated, this it is one of the most docile. It is never disturbed or nervous, nor tries to bite. It allows handling without trying to escape. It lives well in captivity in a humid environment, feeding almost exclusively with frogs of the genus Colosthetus. But remember: never touch a snake unless you know for sure it is not poisonous.